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No. 164 



LOYALTY OF GERMAN-AMERICANS 

TO THE 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 

AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF JORDAN, MINN. 
' ON NOVEMBER 10, 1917 

By 

HON. JULIUS A. COLLER 






r 






PRESENTED BY MR. NELSON 
DECEMBER 4, 1917.— Referred to Committee on Printin* 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1918 



REPORTED BY MR. SMITH, OP ARIZONA. 

In the Senate of the United States, 

January 21, 1918. 
Resolved, That the manuscript submitted by the Senator from 
Minnesota (Mr. Nelson) on January 4, 1918, entitled "An address 
by Hon. Julius A. Coller, delivered at Jordan, Minn., November 10, 
1917," be printed as a Senate document. 
Attest : 

James M. Baker, Secretary. 
2 



MY 



LOYALTY OF GERMAN-AMERICANS TO THE 
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. 



Address by Hon. Julius A. Coixek. 

We are gathered here, my friends, to publicly renew our fealty 
and devotion to our one and only country. 

You and I are proud of old Scott, we are proud — intensely 
proud — of the glorious history of our own native State, and of the 
loyal deeds of the brave men who settled and built up this great Com- 
monwealth of Minnesota; they who were the first to respond to 
Lincoln's call; they who sent more defenders of the Union than 
any other State per capita ; they who immortalized themselves forever 
at Gettysburg; it is of them and of their glorious deeds that we 
think to-day as we renew and reaffirm our fealty and devotion and 
pledge our unending loyalty to the land of the Stars and Stripes. 

I see before me in this splendid gathering men whose cradle was 
rocked on the highlands and lowlands of Hanover, on the moors of 
Oldenburg, on the Ehine " Wo die Rebe blueht," on Bavarian and 
Pommeranian soil; men from the uplands and lowlands of the Ger- 
man and Austrian Empires, and side by side with them I see men 
whose birthplace was under the sunny skies of France, in the 
templed woods of Bohemia, on the Emerald Isle, in the domains of 
Great Britain, and on fair Scandia's rugged soil. 

And these men, who left their homelands and their ties, came here, 
and by their toil, by their energy, by their thrift and frugality laid 
broad and deep the foundations of this great Eepublic and made it 
the richest, the fairest, and the best land under the sun. 

And it is but human that the land of their birth should hold for 
them some memories dear; that the land where rest in eternal sleep 
the father who nurtured him and the mother who bore him should 
fill his mind and heart with the fondest and most hallowed recol- 
lections. 

And, therefore, it was but natural that at the outbreak of the hos- 
tilities across the sea that each man's heart and each man's soul 
should hark back to the land of his birth and array itself on the 
side of that land that once was his and against every other land 
across the sea that fought against the land of his birth. 

I confess that even I, born and reared under the Stars and Stripes, 
felt the call of the blood of Hanover and of Oldenburg, and that 
prior to 1917 I yielded to no man in the ardency of my desire and in 
the strength of my hope that the eagles of Germany might emerge 
supreme in the conflict across the sea. 

That was the call of the blood. But what is the call of the blood to 
the call of our own, our only country? Your country and mine is 
calling, and the call of the blood sinks into insignificance when 
comes the call of the only country that we have, the only country 
that we love, the only country that we want, the only country to 



4 LOYALTY OF GERMAN-AMERICANS. 

which we owe fealty and devotion and for which you and I will 
offer up every sacrifice. 

I am not unmindful nor unaware of the fact that a propaganda 
has been and is being made to instill into the minds and hearts of 
men of German blood and ancestry disloyalty — and if this does not 
succeed, then to still passiveness and inactivity in the cause of our 
country — passiveness and inactivity, which is nothing less than 
plain, everyday no.nloyalty. And I am here to tell you, and to tell 
you with all the power at my command, that passiveness, inactivity, 
and nonloyalty is just as treasonable, just as murderous to our 
country and to our brave boys at the front, in its results, as active, 
open treason. 

And because I am of German blood I resent this propaganda with 
all the strength of my manhood ; I protest with all my heart and soul 
against this most despicable work of these propagandists, who seek 
to destroy the good name and fame of the men of German blood in 
this country, earned and established by their loyalty and their whole- 
hearted service to country and to State in the century gone by. 
These propagandists are the worst enemies that the men of German 
blood have to contend with. 

I can not, however, understand how anyone of the blood of Han- 
over, of Westphalia, of Bavaria, of Schleswig-Holstein.- and ether 
Principalities and Provinces within the German Empire can be 
swayed into having any sympathy for or adhesion to the Pruss : an 
autocracy, even leaving cut of question the fact that this country is 
at war with that autocracy, because of the treatment accorded to 
your homelands in the papt by this same autoer^cv. 

You of Westphalia, Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hanover, 
who enjoyed peace and happiness and contentment under your own 
Governments, until the robber came and stole your land and over- 
threw your constitution and your Government, especially you of 
Hanover and of Schleswig-Holstein . what cause have you to sym- 
pathize with Prussian militarism and Hohenzollorn autocracv? 

You k^ow it, and you know it in your heart, that it was this self- 
same militarism and autocracy th^t overwhelmed vour country, over- 
threw the Government and ruthhsslv and forc'bly annulled your 
constitution, destroyed ycur citizenship, and annexed your country 
as a part of their Prussian domain : and. not content with that, snonred 
at your misfortune and misery and taunted you with being a " Muss 
Preuss." 

You of Hanover know how this injustice rankled in your hearts 
and how in impotent rasfe you oried ou*" afa^st this great wrong 
and gave expression to your feelings in the following verses: 

Prupssen he? H°nover Rtohl — 
Pmessen f o1 J dei P T ~evel holn — 
B'sivprck dnt ^Uc Sw'en — 
He will usere Koenig s'n. 

(-Prussia stole Hairvr la><1— 
Fru-ssin eba 7 l tb Q devil 1 nd — ■ 
Bism"rck. Pie old h^g, he 
Our King would be.) 

Wie heb eon Kaiser — h^> wh^nr in Wien 
Wie heb een Rneuber — be whont in Berlin 

(Wp bave on? Ka'ser — he l'v.es in Vienna — 
We have one robber — he lives in Berlin.) 



LOYALTY OP GERMAN-AMERICANS. 5 

You. of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein ; you whom the autocrats 
of Prussia have robbed of your birthright; "you whose Government 
they destroyed, whose king and ruler they dethroned; you whose 
homeland was wiped out by these autocrats; you whom they, after 
destroying your Government and robbing you of your home and 
•country, snceringly refer to as the " Muss Pruess " (must be Prus- 
sian). You whom they made feel for all the days you lived in your 
homeland that you were a vassal, an underling, a servant of the 
Prussian master; you they are now approaching with sophistries and 
lies to weaken your loyalty to the best land in all this world. Is it 
.any wonder that I am astounded at their supreme gall in trying to 
enlist the sympathies of men in their cause who have felt tlie iron 
heel of the military autocracy on their necks ? 

What arguments have these propagandists in their attempts to 
incite inactivity and nonloyalty? Briefly they are these: 

First. The draft law is unconstitutional. 

Second. Our boys should not be sent across the water. 

Third. This is a rich man's war. 

Fourth. Men of German blood should not be asked to kill their 
brothers across the sea. 

It is self-evident that there is nothing in the first argument, because 
a government, if it is a government, must possess the inherent power 
to protect itself and to perpetuate itself, and it must therefore have 
the inherent power to call to its aid all the resources of the country, in- 
cluding all of its man power, for its preservation and perpetuity. 

The second argument is nonsensical. The men who make it will 
urge that Germany is the greatest military power on earth and that 
it possesses the greatest military genius — this we readily admit. 
Now, this very military genius did not wait until its enemy was on 
German soil. No; it packed its battlefields on the soil of France and 
Belgium and the world has seen the wisdom of their choice. 

Fight we must, and it is better for us and our children and women 
that we fight our bat f les in France or Belgium than to fight them in 
New York, in New England, or the South Atlantic States; we will 
at least in that way protect our women and our children. 

If to-morrow we would get into trouble with Great Britain, and 
if cur General Staff failed to pick out the fighting ground in Canada, 
these self same propagandists would be the first to crv out against 
the inefficiencv and incompetency of our General Staff and clamor 
for its removal. 

This is not the first time our boys have fought on foreign soil. In 
1812 our boys fought in Canada; in 1818 Winfield Scott marched 
with 12,000 men from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico; in 1898 we 
fought in Cuba, in Porto Eico, and in the Philippines; and there 
was not a word of protest from these propagandist's. 

The third argument is an absolute untruth. If this war was made 
by the rich men they are certainly the greatest forls the world has yet 
produced. The big men of the country were making money without 
limit before this country entered the war, and if it was money they 
wanted they would have left things as they were. The entrance of 
this country into the war con Id only hurt them, and thev knew it, 
and the war has hurt them. Wealth is being conscripted just as well 
as man power. You know that ; you know that all corporations and 



6 LOYALTY OF GERMAN-AMERICANS. 

all firms and individuals must pay an excess-profits tax on all in- 
comes over $6,000. You know that the income tax, while it is 2 per 
cent on amounts up to $5,000, mounts at every increase of income until 
it reaches 33^ per cent of the income, so that while you and I are 
required to pay the amount of $60 on a net income of $3,000, for 
the same sum the rich man must pay (if his income is large enough) 
a tax of $1,000; and you know that the rich man's son had no exemp- 
tion, while the son of the poor widow was readily exempted. 

This is a democracy — Germany is an autocracy. In Germany the 
nobles and the " vons " do the commanding, the common herd the 
fighting. Here, rich and poor, high and low, all bear an equal part 
in the defense of their country. 

The fourth argument is an insult to the American of German 
blood — it doubts, and casts suspicion on his loyalty. We are Ameri- 
cans — not Germans — and we fight for our land against all enemies, 
even if these enemies are of the same blood. And this is not the first 
time in the history of this country that blood fought against blood, 
and brother against brother. The English under Washington fought 
the English under Cornwallis; the Germans under Washington, and 
there were many, fought the Hessians under the English leaders — 
and the men of the North fought their brothers of the South, that 
liberty might live and this Union remain one and inseparable. 

But, my friends, the war is on — all debate, all question, all inquiry, 
as to its propriety or impropriety, as to whether it could be avoided 
or not, as to its justice or injustice, is at an end. This is a democracy, 
and the people have spoken. Our Eepresentatives in Congress of our 
Nation have, by an overwhelming vote, declared that a state of war 
exists^ and there is only one slogan now : " Our country — right or 
wrong, our country." And it is now our duty, from now until peace 
dawns again upon a troubled world, to give our whole heart, our 
whole soul, all of our being, to our country, to this country that has 
clone so much for us, this countiy that to many of you is the land 
of your choice and adoption. 

And to you whose birthplace was on foreign soil, you know that 
the land-of your birth offered you no future. There you had sacri- 
fices, and these sacrifices brought you no recompense. Toil, unremit- 
ting toil, and service to the crown was your lot; and as you existed 
there in silent despair there came glinting to you across the waters 
the message of the flag of the people, the flag of freedom, equality, 
and. liberty, and it bade you come Jo this land of the free and enjoy 
the full measures of its freedom and happiness, and you came, and 
by and through the opportunities which this flag has given you, you 
have grown prosperous beyond the dreams of your youth, you have 
enjoyed liberty, equality, and happiness without stint or measure 
every day of your life, and you owe it to this country of your adop- 
tion, you owe it to yourself, you owe it to your children and your chil- 
dren's children to give to this flag the full measures of devotion, and 
loyalty — loyalty full, undiminished, and undivided. 

You must be all American, there must not lurk in your heart one 
spark — I will not say of disloyalty,. for you can not be base enough for 
that — b\ v there must not be in that heart and soul of yours one atom 
that does not throb and pulsate with love for country, that does not 
burn with loyalty for flag and motherland. 



LOYALTY OP GERMAN-AMERICANS. 7 

The Son of Man, the gentle Nazarene, who trod the soil of Galilee, 
has said " He who is not with me is against me " ; Abraham Lincoln, 
the great emancipator, said: " This nation can hot endure, half 
slave and half free." And so it is my friends, we may not have a 
divided allegiance, half foreign and half American; we must be all 
American. We may not sit idly by with folded hands, while the 
Iifeblood of our boys is ebbing away in the trenches; we may not 
decry war and cry peace, when there is no peace and our very own 
boys are being mutilated and killed that we may live. 

" He who is not for me is against me." He who does not come to 
the aid and service of his country at this time is against this country 
and is an enemy of the 60 boys who have gone from this county, is 
an enemy of the brave volunteers who are in the service of their 
country, and an enemy of every son of Scott County who gives his 
service and offers his life in the service of his country. 

An enemy did I say? He is worse. Because a fighting enemy has 
some compassion, some sympathy, and he has none. If the pacifist 
and nonloyalist had his way, our boys would hunger and starve at 
the front, would go naked and unclothed, for he buys no liberty bond 
that our boys might be clothed and housed and fed ; he would let our 
boys, our wounded boys, wounded in the defense of the country that 
shelters and protects him, suffer and perish in despair, because he has 
no use for the Red Cross and will not donate one penny to aid it in its 
noble work for the relief of our brave boys who are fighting to pro- 
tect his country, his home, and his liberty; while the Red Cross of 
Germany and of Austria, supported by the pennies of the starving 
women and children of the central powers, will bring succor and re- 
lief to our suffering boys, enemies though they may be, while the non- 
loyalist, by his inactivity ,-dvis nonsupport, would and does allow the 
glorious sons of his own land, fighting for humanity, for freedom, for 
democracy, lie in agony and suffering, and die unaided and alone. 

My friends, I have been and am proud of my German blood, but 
I am prouder, intensely prouder, of my own country, my American- 
ism; and in behalf of the good name and fame that Americans of 
German blood have always enjoyed, in the name of those of German 
blood who fought with Washington, for freedom and against au- 
tocracy; in the name of that great American of German blood who 
loved freedom and liberty, as no other man ever loved it more — Carl 
Schurz — in the name of those brave heroes of German blood who 
fought " Mit Siegel " and Rosecrans, with the great Grant and Sher- 
man, that this Union might be preserved, I appeal to you of German 
blood to be true to the loyal and glorious record that has been made 
by Americans of German blood in other times and in other days ; be 
true, as they were true, and fight in the very front ranks, for mother- 
land and freedom. 

St. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, wrote : 

" There is a glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and an- 
other glory of the stars, but one star differeth from the other in 
glory." And this applies to us, my friends, we here in this great melt- 
ing pot of the world, are of the blood of every land and country 
under the sun, and naturally have some pride in the glories that twine 
around our own homelands; those of England are proud of tne glory 
that is theirs because Shakespeare and Milton and Nelson and Wel- 
lington were of their blood ; those of Ireland are proud of Emmet and 



8 LOYALTY OP GERMAN-AMERICANS. 

Moore and O'Connell; those of Scotland of Bobbie Burns; of France 
of the great Napcleon; of Germany of Moltke and Bismarck and 
Goetthe and Schiller; of Poland of Sobieski and Kosciusko; and so 
each is proud of the men who added luster to the glory of his land, 
yet what are these glories compared to the glory of our own immortal 
Washington, who founded tfrs freemen's Republic and set up a gov- 
ernment for and by the people? 

What are the glories of the men of other lands compared to the 
glory of our own Abraham Lincoln who made the words of the 
declaration " that all men are created free and equal " a living fact 
and ring true down all the ages? 

This is our country, and this is our flag, the best, the dearest, the 
sweetest country in all the world. A country incomparably above all 
other lands — freedom and liberty is ours for all time — opportunities 
the greatest that the world possesses or can offer is ours for the ask- 
ing and the grasping — and to this country of ours you and I will re- 
new on this day our fealty and devotion and pledge to it our best 
service and undivided allegiance. 

They may talk about fatherlands — this is motherland — and as 
motherhood rises supreme above fatherhood, just as motherhood is 
the sweetest and holiest thing in all this world, so is this motherland 
of ours the best, the sweetest, and dearest land in all this world. 

Some of us here will be called upon to make the supreme sacrifice, 
so that this Government may not pass away, but may live and pros- 
per. You and I who are not called into the active service of our 
country, have this to do to show our love and loyalty for country and 
for flog. Our boys at the front must be clothed and must be fed, they 
must be cared for in sickness and in distress — this is a people's gov- 
ernment and you and I are sovereigns of the land, and being sov- 
ereigns it is to you and I that these boys who go to the front from 
Scott County must look to for protection and help. They can look to 
no one else. You and I must clothe them, you and I must provide for 
them, you and I must nurse them when they are wounded and must 
care for them when sick and in distress. Are you going to be true to 
these boys or are you going to let them suffer and endure the hard- 
ships that our forefathers did when half naked and unfed, in snow 
and in storm and chilling blast, they fought at Valley Forge that you 
and I might enjoy the blessings of liberty and peace? 

This is our war. It is mine, it is yours — and it is our solemn duty 
to give of our resources, freely and unstintingly — that our Govern- 
ment may live and that our boys may be guarded and protected. 

We can show our loyalty, we can serve our country, loyally and 
well, by unselfishly and promptly responding to the country's call 
for help, by buying liberty bonds. Not baby bonds, because baby 
bonds are for babies, but full-grown bonds, man-sized bonds, so that 
our boys at the front may be properly taken care of so that this war 
will be won; that militarism will be forever destroyed (and you, and 
I, and all of us, hate militarism, we hate to see our boys go — but go 
they must), that militarism be crushed, so that from now and hence- 
forth as long as time shall last, there shall never be another mother 
whose heart shall be crushed as her first born is offered up to the hor- 
rible Moloch of war, and that peace, sweet peace, shall- forever reign 
supreme. 



LOYALTY OF GEKMAN-AMERICANS. 9 

Under this starry banner our boys go to the front, under it, like 
their forefathers in years gone by, they will fight for freedom against 
autocracy. Under it, like the heroes of the Civil War, they fight for 
liberty and freedom — but unlike they who fought for freedom and 
liberty on American soil alone, these boys will fight for humanity and 
for liberty and freedom as wide and broad as the world. 

And to these boys of ours, for ours they are, we pledge our un- 
swerving loyalty, we will buy liberty bonds to the fullest extent of 
our means, we will support the Red Cross with all our power and all 
our might, and we will welcome the victors when home they come, 
for victors they will be without question, for they fight under a flag 
that has never seen defeat, they fight for the holiest cause, freedom 
and liberty, they fight to make of this blessed flag that once was ours 
alone, the flag of humanity, the flag of Belgium, of France, of Po- 
land, of Ireland, of Bohemia, and the flag of the new Republic of 
Germany. 

And with the peoples of all these lands and of all the nations, we 
will rejoice at their homecoming, and thank God in gratitude, that 
liberty and freedom are saved, and will be forever enthroned in all 
the lands for all the people — never to fade — never to die. 

o 



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